Adventures Overseas 4/16

These sixteen updates will be the condensed and often more erratic version of my adventures overseas, comprised of the updates that I sent home to my family at the time.

Author's Disclaimer: The following were written when I traveled overseas with my sister. They were the short and sweet version of what was going on in my daily journal. Often, I watered things down so that our parents wouldn't know how scared we really were or how bad a hostel really was. We didn't want to scare them. Also, I wrote these updates on my iPod, and in the interest of authenticity, I haven't edited or changed the formatting much. This may be less to do with authenticity and more to do with all those darn buttons I'd have to press if I edited it all. Anyway, there are plenty of little typos to go around I'm sure. I'm sorry. They bug me, too.

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Update 4: September 15, 2018 – SATURDAY

Well, Sister and I are on our way to the faaaaaaar North, to Inverness. When we tell people where we’re heading, they always respond with, “Oooh! I hope the rains stop for you!” or “Aaaah, it’s getting cold up there!”

I still have not found a sweater that I want to buy. I feel as though my days of shivering in the drizzly England weather should come to an end, but do you think I can find a sweater that has the name London or Nottingham on it???

As it gets colder, which we should probably be prepared for, I don’t have much to layer up with. Just t-shirts.

I must look like a real whiner though, because it’s apparently snowing in Calgary, so we’re still looking pretty good up here.

Anyway, I left off at Nottingham, so I’ll pick up there.

Well, not really there, because we left there early the next morning, on the 14. We got on a 7:46 train to Disley, a small town that doesn’t have claim to much fame, except that it is situated very close to the vast and beautiful Lyme Park.

Maybe you don’t know what Lyme Park is. Maybe you know what it is, but don’t even know you know what it is.

Lyme park is an estate that came into a family some 500 years ago. In the 1750’s, it was restored to pretty much as it is today, though the generations have modernized it somewhat, so it has electricity and some plumbing.

Anyway, this beautiful mansion has been used in films through the years, which is how I came to know it. It was used in the 1996 BBC Pride and Prejudice adaptation, which, of course, is the very best one.

After some unsurety about how to get there, a couple of locals giving us directions, and about a km of walking, we arrived at the park. It was going to be another mile or so to get to the top of the hills to the house, so we were going to ask the lady at the gate about a locker to put our packs in. Fortunately, before we could even hint about the heaviness of our bags or the longness of the uphill walk, she called in a complimentary shuttle van for us! Joyous news!

Our first order of business was to tour the house. It was very grand, but quite the maze. There is a courtyard in the center, then the house goes all the way around. That doesn’t sound hard to get around, but there narrow halls, halls for servants, stairs, stairs for male servants, stairs for female servants, bedrooms that you have to go through to get to main halls... luckily, they have put up a series of ropes and closed doors, so that you can’t really get lost.

After we finished going through the house, we decided we would regret it if we didn’t book a slot in for having high tea for two down in the basement, in what was the old salting room (where they would have hung the meat). Before our tea time, we were able to tour some of the grounds and gardens. They were absolutely gorgeous and immaculate! It was mind-bending to think that someone designed and built all of that! We saw the stables from the outside, but couldn’t get to the kennels, where the family had their own particular breed of mastiff. There was a big greenhouse, a great stone building with massive windows, used to grow citrus fruits and exotic plants. On an even higher hill about 300 yards from the house stood a tall, square tower, the Cage, which was used by hunting parties. The view was incredible from there. On the whole, the park and house get a 10/10, would go there again rating. I loved it all!

Now. High tea. Also very glad we experienced this. I know there are people in my family that would love to know what was served, so here it is, a detailed description...

Obviously there was tea for starters. A bottomless pot with a little bowl of lumps (not squares - this was a classy joint) of brown and white sugar. The milk for the tea was in a miniature glass milk bottle, which is apparently a new fad in England. Many a cups of tea were had by Sister and I that afternoon.

Now, the food: a three-tiered tray.

Bottom tray: finger sandwiches. There were four different types, and four of each type. Each piece was a little triangle of decrusted sammich. Because classy people don’t eat crusts, I guess.

One type was a cheese and onion chutney on white bread. I do not know what chutney is, but this stuff was sweet, oniony, and cheesy, which are some of my favourite things. It was a delightful little morsel.

The other three were pretty basic: one was egg salad on brown bread, one tuna with lemon zest on brown bread, and one ham and cheese on white bread.

The sandwiches were delicious, especially since we’d only had yoghurt on the train, and it was 2:30 by this time.

On the second tier, there were two huge scones, and beside them, we each got a tiny jar of jam and a little container of clotted cream.

Why they don’t have clotted cream everywhere in the world is one of the great mysteries of the universe, right up there with Stonehenge. The stuff is so simple, yet so tasty! I looked it up later, and apparently all it is is heavy cream that’s heated to separate, so that it’s really thick. Honestly, we were eating it right out of the container by the end. It’s especially delectable when spread thickly on a scone, topped with a bit of jam. My word, but is that lovely.

Anyway, after that layer of the tray, we were pretty full (we’d been going pretty hard on the tea), so we didn’t even eat the third tier, though we did pack it to eat later. It contained three different types of sweets (with two of each type, a strategy used to get people not to fight over who gets what. Our parents employed this when buying Christmas presents; they always got Sister and I the same things). There were iced brownies, pound cakes with a jam layer, and sugar cookies.

We ate the remaining sweets as we rode the train to Manchester, where we had a hostel booked.

Manchester: 0/10, would not do again. We didn’t even really ‘do’ Manchester. We went from the train to the hostel, then back to the train again. But it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I go into details in my more extensive notes, but I won’t go into it just now.

We’re off to Inverness this morning! We had to switch trains in Edinburgh, and I can see already that this is a city I would love to wander around. We can see some huge, old stone buildings, including a castle! just from the tracks here. We plan to come here after Inverness, and fly out from the airport. Maybe we’ll have to give ourselves an extra day to explore.

Update: the next stop is Inverness!!! At the previous stop, some people got on board and are sitting across the aisle. They have good Autumn wind breakers, toques, and scarves. That scares me a little. I definitely need to be more intentional about finding a sweater. They’re tourists. I know this because they are currently discussing the pronunciation of Loch Ness, making strange, harsh, gargling noises in the back of their throats.

I think they are Swedish. I think this because when they first got on and started speaking rapidly, a lot of it sounded like “yorgen, dorgen, blorgen, schvorgen,” which, of course, is how the Swedish Chef from the Muppets sounds.

I think my logic is pretty good here, but of course, I will not turn and ask them.